Eelco Schattorie tells Mumbai City FC did not play with the right spirit

Despite putting on a great fight, NorthEast United ultimately went down 2-3 to Mumbai City FC in Thursday's crunch ISL fixture. The visitors looked far more formidable than usual and it made for an extremely exciting affair.

With the score locked at 2-2, MCFC captain, Lucian Goian popped up to score the crucial equaliser and kept alive Mumbai's hopes of a spot in the final four. Albeit the goal was scored under controversial circumstances.

NEUFC's, John Mosquera went down injured at the other end but the home side continued to play on and made the most of it, scoring the elusive winner. Eelco Schattorie, an assistant coach at the Highlanders refused to believe that the home side did not see an opposition player lying on the ground. He accused Mumbai City and their coach, Guimaraes of not playing the game in the right spirit.

"It's not sporting if they overlooked the injury and sneaked in a goal. Yeah yeah, they didn't see the ball, my a**! I apologize for going to their side (to vent his frustration) I am not sure what kind of injury obliges the referee to stop the game but for Mumbai to pretend they didn't see it is bull***t," he fumed.

However, Eelco did admit that overall, his side was inferior to Mumbai. The hosts dominated the match for large parts and continued to test NEUFC's defence all night long. The visitors found it difficult to get out of their own half and were content with the scored tied at 2-2. However, their inability to build an attack ultimately came back to haunt them.

"I think Mumbai was the better team. The game was all about controlling. In the first quarter, we didn't get our organisation right. We got the organisation back after conceding the first and later got a lucky goal. We opened a bit too much in the second half. We gave so many balls away which isn't normal. My message of keeping the ball went to waste," he explained.